Hi all! My name is Steve Grammont and I’m the other half of the PRFC co-founding team, with Erin being the other half. In order to not duplicate Erin’s December 14 blog post about food security I’m going to write about the food production side. Since moving here 20+ years ago we’ve found ourselves becoming more and more involved with local food. At first it was because it tasted great and was fresher than the “foreign” foods (you know, from California!), then we felt the urge to help support those who make the things we love to eat. From our food producing friends we learned a lot more about the challenges they face producing and getting food to markets. Since I have a family background in warehousing/shipping logistics I instantly appreciated the challenges they face. I strange irony is many of the things that make the Piscataquis area such a great place to live in also makes it challenging to make a living. As Erin became more involved with food security needs I began to see opportunities to help out both those who need help getting food and those who could use a hand producing it. From this was born the concept of PRFC - a single logistics facility operated by an organization dedicated to bringing food eaters and food producers of all types together for everybody’s benefit. Over the past two years we’ve worked together with many, many others to design practical solutions tailored for our local communities. We joke that it’s Erin’s job to come up with “crazy” new ways to get food out to people in need, it’s my job to make sure PRFC can actually do it.
We also joke that if there is a way to use metal wheeled rollers for a particular idea, I will find it. All of the hard work building our capacity to help is finally coming together and over the past half a year we’ve begun testing some our ideas in the real world (including the rollers!). We’re very encouraged by the results so far (especially with the rollers!). In 2019 expect to see our crazy blue van driving in and out of Dover to here, there, and everywhere with the goal of making our community stronger, happier, and healthier. We’re very much looking forward to the coming year and to finding more practical uses for rollers.
